Computational CAD/FEM Technologies Application to Dental Medical Field

The aim of the study here presented would be that of showing the capabilities of a con-vincing medical and technical methodology aimed at developing a dental prosthesis forecast model and a simulation tool with state-of-the-art acceptable validation. A FEM model of the dental prosthesis was developed taking into account shape and material characteristics of the different parts of the prosthesis. Starting from patient specific raw data and CAD representations, stress and displacements were computed on specific contact tooth areas and connecting parts by means of a FEM linear static analysis. Boundary conditions and loads were defined and applied following an at present normally used patient specific simulation in personal medicine. More realistic load values in the contact bite areas could be experimentally measured and acquired by means of on purpose designed load cells. The main advantage of the proposed method consists in identifying and pointing out the dental prosthesis area with the highest and hazardous stress by means of a fast, reliable and automated procedure. So that the technical analyst can intervene immediately to reduce or eliminate the problem by varying dental prosthesis morphology and thickness, moreover improving material characteristics and/or testing new bio-compatible components. This way an optimal prosthesis can be realized without iatrogenic damage, in particular in complex implant projects. On this purpose, a new application is presented here dealing with structural behavior and bone modeling around implant by comparing zirconia and titanium FEM analyses results. Some valuable conclusions can be utilized for the implementation of zirconia implants, more bio-compatible than the usual titanium ones.